THE EARLIEST MEN 183 



In the first place the discovery of these remains 

 must necessarily, in almost every conceivable case 

 except where caves are being purposely searched 

 for the remains be made by some labourer wholly 

 ignorant of the matter in question. If the remains 

 themselves are not destroyed or grievously mutil- 

 ated, the surrounding conditions must necessarily 

 have been so much interfered with as to render it 

 very difficult, perhaps almost impossible, to say 

 whether the body lies in disturbed or undisturbed 

 earth, that is, whether we have to do with an inter- 

 ment or a natural position of the body. 



The next question refers to the objects found 

 with the remains. If it is an undoubted interment 

 and remains are found with it, as in the case of La 

 Chapelle aux Saints, no question arises. But let 

 us take the case of a fragment of skull found in a 

 gravel pit in association with palaeolithic imple- 

 ments, and the teeth of elephants and a hippo- 

 potamus. They may all belong to the same period 

 it is true, but then, on the other hand, they may 

 not, for they may belong to different periods, and 

 have been rolled together in the same pit by some 

 great flood. Here it may be remarked that animal 

 remains, particularly of the kind alluded to above, 

 are of great service in assigning a period to things 

 found with them, but only where it can be defi- 

 nitely proved that the collocation of the two 

 classes of objects is not wholly accidental. A frag- 

 ment or the entire of a skull of a Roman soldier 

 might quite conceivably be found in gravels 

 containing palaeolithic implements and teeth of 

 the kind alluded to above, but long ages would 



